TOareaFan
Superstar
Build a mega huge parking structure at Bramalea station. That place is never going to be attractive for any other uses. Let the car addicts park there, rather than the valuable land in the middle of Brampton.
Will people, though, drive from all over Brampton to that one station (it is a very large city..geographically speaking....with serious traffic congestion issues)? Or will those that used to drive to Brampton and park just say "to heck with it, I am in my car anyway let's keep going"?
Use me (may not be the best example as I am only an ocassional GO user but here goes).....In rush hour I can drive to Brampton GO and park in 10 minutes.....combine that with the train ride and the walk from Union to my office and I +/- break even in terms of time (door to door) on my commute. The rush hour drive to Bramalea station always takes at least 30 minutes and sometimes more....those 30 minutes (less, what, 7 minutes for the shorter train ride) means that more often than not the commute by GO will take longer than simply driving to work.
Similar effect by taking BT to the train. By the time you walk to the bus stop and take the bus and transfer and walk from the bus terminal to the train station....the eplanner suggests leaving 25 - 30 minutes to arrive at the GO station.....so an additional 15 to 20 minutes. I do this on ocassion and have found the eplanner to be generous in its timings but even if it is 10 - 15 minutes it still sways the total trip time in favour of the private car.
On a board and in discussions it is easy to throw out lines like "drive and park at Bramalea" but we do need to be concerned that the unintended consequence of developing the GO parking lot at Brampton might be to push people away from the GO service. I don't know how many people it would push away......but in a world where we are trying to convince more people in the suburbs to use GO (and where we are making significant investments to that end) it is a decision that cannot be made lightly.